'Murphy Brown' Revival Will Feature #MeToo Episode

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CBS

The series returns Sept. 27 on CBS.

The Murphy Brown revival will be taking inspiration straight from the headlines. 

During the show's presentation at CBS' Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday, Murphy Brown creator and executive producer Diane English revealed the series is planning to air an episode centered on the recent #MeToo movement

"We actually developed an episode about the #MeToo movement many months ago and that will be our fourth episode," she revealed. 

"There's some spoilers in it. I can’t tell you too much. But I can tell you that in the writer’s room, we have a great collection of people… so in developing this episode, we came at it from so many different angles, because it is such a complicated issue," English continued. "For a week to 10 days, just the conversations we had in there… I don’t think there’s probably a woman out here who hasn’t had some experience with misogyny or misconduct. So it’s a powerful movement, we wanted to do it some justice, and the title is #MurphyToo."

Murphy Brown, which ran for 10 seasons from 1988 to 1998, was famous for its episodes and storylines inspired by current events, as well as its political satire. The show reached a new level of cultural notoriety in the 1992 presidential campaign, when Dan Quayle mentioned the show in a campaign speech -- and star Candice Bergen (who is also executive producing the revival), said the series will continue to deliver thought-provoking content. 

"The script for the first episode is so ambitious and so fearless," she raved. "This show has no fear of anyone, because we really stick our heads in the lion’s mouth, and [English] handled it so brilliantly, as you’ll see." 

"They’re all in retirement," Bergen said of where fans will find Murphy, Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford) and Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto) when the show picks back up again. "They want to get back in the action, especially now, when there’s so much action. They just want to be back in the game, and it’s a game they’re so good at." 

As for Charles Kimbrough's Jim Dial -- who was previously unconfirmed to appear in the revival -- fans will also  get to check back in with him, Kimbrough will return for three episodes of Murphy Brown's 13 episodes. Grant Shaud, Jake McDorman, Nik Dodani and Tyne Daly also star.

Also released at TCA on Sunday was a clip of the cast's table read. Watch below.

Bergen opened up to ET in May about why she decided it was time to bring back the celebrated series. 

"Diane English and I have been discussing it for a little while and suddenly this year and this past election year, we thought, ‘There’s just so much to say and fix,'" she explained. 

"News is collected very differently than it used to be and we thought that our show should be a fact-based news source which has become sort of out of fashion," she continued. "So, we’re going to bring it back into fashion. And Murphy is a real journalist -- tried and true -- so I think she deserves to be back."

Murphy Brown premieres Thursday, Sept. 27 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. 

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